As if the gray hair and increasing
pain in my lower back wasn't enough, I received another reminder recently of my
advancing age. A twenty-something marketing manager where I work was at my desk,
and noticed the stack of compact discs. "CDs," she said, "how old school." Old
school? CDs? Have I missed something? I mean, I knew CD sales were dropping
every year, but I had no idea that they were downright unfashionable. When did
this happen?

Turns out, the "CD vs. digital download" battle
is largely generational. While we still have the numbers on our side (far more
music is sold on CD than any other medium), Nielsen data suggests that the
younger the artist, the larger percentage of their album sales will be digital.
For example, 76% of female pop singer/rapper/provocateur Ke$ha's debut album was
sold via digital download. The Beatles, on the other hand, sold more than four
times as many remastered CDs as downloaded albums the first week each was out,
even with all the hype around the Fab Four's debut on iTunes.

Still, it is getting to the point where a good
USB DAC is practically a standard-issue component of a hi-fi rig, whether you're
an audiophile who's just growing up, or an older one who's just keeping up. The
good news about digital technology is that the golden age is always right now,
and digital audio components are getting better – and cheaper – all the
time. Case in point is the unit under review here. The Music Hall dac25.3 is the
latest incarnation of the dac25.2, which received rave reviews from nearly every
audio publication online or in print since it came out in 2009. That this $600
unit is the brain child of Roy Hall comes as no surprise, as Mr. Hall has been a
champion of over-achieving audio components for over 25 years as importer,
distributor, or manufacturer of brands like Shanling, Creek Audio, and Music
Hall, among others. Never having had the pleasure of enjoying any of Music Hall's
associated products in my own system, I jumped at the chance to review the
dac25.3 when it came up.

What's On The OutsideThe dac25.3 feels fairly hefty in hand, it's half-inch
thick aluminum faceplate a nice window dressing on what is otherwise an ordinary
folded sheet-metal enclosure. Front panel controls are simple: a power button, a
volume knob that affects the headphone output only, a button for selecting one
of four digital inputs, and another button for selecting one of three upsampling
options. What little experimentation I did with the upsampling feature came
fairly early. I found that I preferred 192kHz upsampling to 96kHz, but both
seemed to put a ricepaper-thin digital "veil" over the sound, so I set the
control to "lock" (Mandarin for "off"?) and left it that way for the remainder
of the review period.

One minor niggle on the front panel: the LEDs
that indicate the source and upsampling options are also the clearest indicators
of when the unit's power is flowing. When no digital signal is present for a few
minutes, the LEDs turn off, giving the impression that the unit is in some kind
of "sleep" mode. It may be asleep, but power still flows to the tube in the
output stage, its faint glow just visible through the vents in the top of the
unit. The life span for the Electro-Harmonix 6922 tube is 10,000 hours according
to the manufacturer, or about a year and a half if left on continuously.
Replacement tubes can be had for as little as $15 for a Russian-made 6922
identical to the one that ships with the dac25.3, to over $200 for some
European-made NOS tubes available in dwindling quantities.

Getting ConnectedI
received the dac25.3 during the peak of the holiday season. Leland Leard, Music
Hall's VP of Sales & Marketing, explained that the unit would be perfectly
listenable right out of the box, but would "gain refinement" as it breaks in. I
didn't get a chance to test this theory... the day it arrived I installed it in
my system, got some tunes going, and promptly left town for a week. I can only
assume that a week of break-in would be enough to bring out all the refinement
that the dac25.3 has to offer. I use a Dell netbook running Windows XP as my
dedicated "audio server", and connecting it to the dac25.3 was effortless,
requiring no special drivers or selection to be made. Later on in the review
period I tried a few other computers I had around the house...connecting to a
laptop running Vista was similarly flawless. Using a MacBook Pro running OSX
10.5 took a little more effort, requiring a visit to the System Preferences, and
even three tries (unplugging and plugging each time) before the Mac "found" the
dac25.3. Once the Music Hall appeared in the preferences, everything worked
perfectly.

The Proof Is In The
(Christmas) PuddingMy absolute favorite use for a computer in my audio
system is the Rhapsody subscription music service. For less than the price of a
CD each month, I have 24/7 access to a larger music collection than I could
possibly fit in my house. Rhapsody doesn't have everything, but close: from
current pop hits to a surprisingly vast array of experimental boutique record
labels from all over the world. Thing is, with files streaming at 128kbps, I
generally consider Rhapsody a "quantity over quality" deal, best suited for
background listening.

Affordable as the dac25.3 is, I normally wouldn't
recommend something even this fancy if all you want to do is play MP3s in the
background while you cook, clean, or decorate a Christmas tree...but I bring it
up because the Music Hall did such an amazing job in that role. The first chance
I really had to listen to it, I spun up one of the myriad holiday playlists
available on Rhapsody in December and let 'er rip. You know the stuff: Bing
Crosby, Andy Williams, the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, country stars singing about
Jesus...not my usual fair, but I'd be lying if I said it didn't bring a tear to
my eye of good old-fashioned holiday cheer. Trite as it may seem, that bout of
casual listening gave a pretty accurate indication of the dac25.3's strengths
that held even under closer scrutiny: the Music Hall sounds spectacular with
compressed audio files. Whatever you call it: musicality, involvement, the
boogie-factor, PRaT...the dac25.3 has it in spades, and displayed a consistent
ability to connect me with the music and evoke an emotional reaction. I went on
to spend many afternoons of deep, focused listening just sourcing Rhapsody
through the dac25.3.

What truly startled me, partly because it kept
happening again and again, is how much more enjoyable it was listening to
Rhapsody on the dac25.3 than it was on the Benchmark DAC1 PRE that I own. I
could sit and listen to compressed audio files for hours on the dac25.3, whereas
the Benchmark's "warts and all" presentation makes it more of a chore: my mind
wanders...I end up surfing the web, reading liner notes, thinking about getting
a snack, etc. instead of focusing effortlessly on the music. This blew my mind
because, besides being a good deal more expensive, the Benchmark is a superior
DAC in many ways: better transient response, better dynamic range, better bass
control...but whatever it is the dac25.3 is missing; it must be exactly what you
want to remove from lossy audio files to make them sound great.

Listening
to high-resolution music was a slightly different story. According to the sales
materials, the only difference between the dac25.3 and its predecessor is the
ability to play high resolution, 96kHz/24-bit audio files via its USB input. I
had a few laying around that I bought when I reviewed the Benchmark back in
2009, plus I downloaded a free hi-res album currently being offered at HDtracks.
The dac25.3 did a reasonably good job with these, but it wasn't transcendent in
the same way it was with lossy files. I have a 96/24 track of "My Romance" from
McCoy Tyner's outstanding Chesky album, New
York Reunion, an album that I've used to audition audio equipment for
years. It's a jaw-dropping recording, and overall sounded good on the dac25.3,
but I did notice just a touch of wooliness in the bass that I don't hear even on
the Redbook version. Another example was Eiji Oue and the Minnesota Orchestra's
recording of Rimsky-Korsakov's Snow Maiden Suite - Dance of the Tumblers from the HDtracks
sampler. This piece has a lot of bells and other high-frequency percussion, all
of which sounded gorgeous on the dac25.3, not displaying a hint of that
obnoxious digital hash that used to plague cheap digital components. Listening
to this on the dac25.3 was enjoyable, but on the Benchmark it was a thrill...it
is greater dynamics and low-end control really brought the piece to life, and
made me jump out of my chair and shout "Bravo!"

Keep in mind, the Benchmark DAC1 PRE costs a full
$1000 more than the dac25.3. For the money, I'm impressed that the Music Hall
plays 96/24 files over USB at all (there are not many units that do), and its
performance with them is befitting a DAC of this price point. Playing compressed
audio files is really its forte, though, and considering that's what I use my
computer for more than anything, the dac25.3 has inspired a refreshing case of
downgraditis.

Conclusions And Buying AdviceMusic Hall has designed a component in the dac25.3
that specifically addresses the need for great sounding computer-based audio, in
particular for the enjoyment of MP3s, WMAs, and other lossy, compressed audio
files. It's not the cheapest USB DAC on the market, but it's far from being the
most expensive. The great news is that if want to really enjoy the music stored
on your computer, and not necessarily analyze it (or merely endure it), you don't
need to spend more.For those who make habitual use MP3s
or any of the music streaming services (Rhapsody, Last.fm, Pandora, Spotify,
etc.), the dac25.3 is well worth your consideration.